Pearson's battles graduate job discrimination

One firm has said it is taking positive action to make sure more women and people from ethnic backgrounds secure graduate jobs.

A new Observer-commissioned report put media-based client company Pearson's at the top of a list of employers which are promoting equal opportunities in the graduate job world.

According to the Guardian, the publisher holds outreach programmes for students and graduates of diverse backgrounds in order to help them secure a place on its internship schemes.

It is also a member of the Diversity in Publishing Initiative, run by the Arts Council, which provides "hands-on experience" to under-represented black African, Caribbean, Asian and Chinese graduate media job candidates.

Dame Marjorie Scardino, chief executive at Pearson's, told the newspaper: "We need to add more diversity and we're going to be working very hard to achieve this."

A recent study by the Higher Education Statistics Agency found that 73 per cent of women who gained a degree last summer found a graduate job within six months of leaving university, compared to 68 per cent of men.